Decide what to migrate
Not everything needs to move. Most companies migrate master data (customers, vendors, materials, assets), open items (unpaid invoices, open purchase and sales orders) and general ledger balances, and keep detailed history in the old system or an archive for reference.
Cleanse and map
- Remove duplicate and inactive customers and vendors, and complete missing tax and bank details.
- Map the legacy chart of accounts to the new structure, including profit centers, cost centers and segments.
- Agree on how fixed assets move: cost and accumulated depreciation, or net book value with history kept separately.
Mock loads and reconciliation
Load the data into a test system at least two or three times before go-live. After each load, reconcile the new trial balance, the receivables and payables ledgers and the asset register back to the legacy system, and investigate every difference. Timings from these rehearsals become your cutover plan.
Sign-off
Before go-live, finance should formally sign off the migrated balances and open items. That sign-off, with the reconciliations behind it, is also valuable evidence for your auditors.
How we help
We run migration workstreams end to end: data cleansing, mapping, mock loads and reconciliations, on SAP, Odoo, Microsoft Dynamics and QuickBooks.
This article is general information, not accounting, tax or legal advice. Rates, thresholds and effective dates should be confirmed with the official sources (IFRS Foundation, tax authorities, regulators) or your adviser before acting.